The opening of Tiffany's in Dublin evokes fond memories for David Courtney, who cut his teeth as a jeweller and engraver in the iconic New York store, writes Deirdre McQuillan
THE OFFICIAL opening of a branch of Tiffany Co in Dublin this week evoked particularly fond memories for one Irishman, David Courtney.
Courtney emigrated to the US in the 1950s and landed a job as an engraver with the iconic New York Store "almost by fluke" in his first week in New York.
Tiffany's has survived recession, depression, two World Wars, and a civil war, so short-term economic cycles do not affect decisions to manage or expand its business. Proof of this came with the decision to open the 170-year-old company's first Irish branch, in Brown Thomas on Grafton Street.
One visitor into the store this week was David Courtney who began a five-year jewellery apprenticeship with Frank Pilkington in his native Galway at the age of 14. He then decided to emigrate with his wife, Ann, to the US.
"I asked my aunt which was the best jewellery shop in New York and she said Tiffany's - I had never heard of it - and it's on Fifth Avenue just past St Patrick's Cathedral," he recalls.
Put to work with a "brilliant engraver", he was sent to art school for more than a year and threatened with the sack if he missed any lessons. The Irish connection worked for him too.
"They told me that one of the best engravers they ever had was from Dublin. That kind of helped and the works manager told me that he would do everything to help me because his mother came from Cork."
In those years, with the company in New York in the first fully air-conditioned building in the city, Courtney engraved items for a host of celebrated figures, among them Dwight Eisenhower, Jackie Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller, Irving Berlin, the king of Siam and the president of the Philippines.
A very special assignment was engraving president John F Kennedy's ceremonial key for the White House.
"The most prestigious job was engraving the entire alphabet on the head of a pin," Courtney remembers, "and the most difficult was a poem that I had to engrave on the inside of a gold thimble for a very well-known man as a gift for his mistress. He was prepared to pay anything for it."
His experience in Tiffany's mirrors Holly Golightly's famous dictum that "nothing very bad could happen to you (in Tiffany's)" in Truman Capote's celebrated novel Breakfast at Tiffany's. Published 50 years ago this month, the book, which continues to sell around 30,000 copies a year, and subsequent film immortalised the great New York jewellery company and turned Audrey Hepburn into a style icon.
In Dublin this week, Tiffany's president James Quinn, also of ancestral Irish origin, acknowledged the power of the movie in sustaining international brand awareness, as the 170-year-old company continues to expand.
Under his tenure, a New York company with six branches has developed into a global player with 200 stores in 30 countries and annual sales figures topping $2 (€1.55) billion in 2007.
The Asian market continues to thrive and plans for the opening of four or five stores a year in China, to reach 30 in five years, have not gone on hold.
Despite Quinn's assertion that it was a "terrific decision" to open in Dublin, the timing of Tiffany's Irish operation will test its ability to sell luxury in a cold climate. Frugalista may be the new buzz word in an age of reduced consumer spending, but according to Quinn, "we are doing quite well since we opened and our bridal business, though not recession proof, is a little more immune to economic distress". One of its most popular selling items remains the famous six-prong Tiffany diamond engagement ring, designed over a century ago and still a classic.
TIFFANY CO is the second-biggest luxury jewellery company in the world, and its staying power and stellar history justify its current optimism. While spending in the US has slowed down "and we are not expecting a robust holiday selling season", Quinn maintains there is enormous value in the Tiffany's enterprise. "So many of our products are purchased for important events and those events do not change."
As executive vice president of the Tiffany Foundation, Quinn has another role, supporting environmental conservation groups. Earlier this year, the foundation made a $1 (€0.77) million investment in Sierra Leone to help restore some of the areas affected by alluvial mining of diamonds.
"As a dominant voice in the jewellery business, we have an obligation to educate our customers and preserve the environment - it's something we take seriously," he says. The company, for instance, does not sell coral, sources ethical diamonds and supports good mining practices.
For David Courtney, now retired and in his 70s, working in Tiffany's was a very happy time for him. "I loved what I was doing and later when I moved to work with Cartier in New York, I felt sad and almost guilty."
He stayed there for two years before returning to Dublin and setting up his own successful jewellery factory in Glasnevin. "That training in Tiffany's polished me off as an engraver and jeweller. It was a very special time."
